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A plucky first half effort from the Eels gave way to a fragmented second stanza as Parramatta fell to the Panthers in Round 19. While Parramatta were keen to chance their arms and test the reigning premiers, a mounting error toll – and yes, some poor officiating – allowed Penrith to stretch out to what was ultimately a comfortable victory. There is plenty of concern for Kitione Kautoga as well after he succumbed to a hip-drop tackle in the first half.
Sixties and Forty20 review the loss and where it leaves the Eels as they turn the corner into the red-hot Raiders next Saturday.
Join the live stream from ~6:45PM to talk the NRL match as well as all the other action out of the weekend.
If I hear Mick Ennis say one more thing about Dylan Brown I’m going to break my TV
Thats why we have a mute button
Look, we made far too many errors across the game; and this I also include defence errors as outlined. Lomax and co made some bad errors here and we were our own enemy.
I appluad Ryles for having the balls to make some changes as per Brown here. I applaud it and hope he continues to use Brown in a 13 role etc. For me Brown has offered little across the season at 5/8, and we need to look at 26 and beyond.
Can someone pls answer how the officials missed the hip drop?
I know we are all frustrated about the officials but it does is absolutely no good bringing it up.
Unless the club makes some sort of official compliant it’s just not going to give us anything.
We are like a bunch of school kids at the moment. Undoubtedly talented but we have absolutely no idea about big ticket items like game mangement and building pressure.
We would rather just play backyard footy.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t win too many games in the NRL.
It screams out a distinct lack of leadership.
I applaud Ryles in his demotion of Brown.
I think the realisation is that we arnt going to do anything this year so what’s the point in running Dylan at 6 ?
Dylan just refuses to run at 6 or at 9 for that matter so what’s the point ?
Id have him in reserves.
I’m not really sold on Joash at 6 moving forward but I’m sure the coaching staff is better placed than me to sort this out.
A quick shout out to Iongi.
The best player on the park by a country mile.
Penrith just sat back and watched us play classic parra ball today. I’d love us just to simplify the way we attack we are not the Melbourne storm and I feel like we are trying to play like them in attack. So many low percentage plays that just put our defence under so much pressure.
Dylan brown I think it’s time to just make the call we’ve had him in all our games bar one this year and his only seen 5 wins. I wouldn’t go sacrificing other players in the team in different positions just to try and fit him in the team. With him at 6 today we get the exact same result I don’t think Joash was the major problem today. He just needs some time in the position
Referees they are diabolical most weeks and it won’t change for us unfortunately we just need to focus on cleaning up our own errors and I still think we win more then lose even with them being terrible.
Referees as much as we need them I just refuse to watch nrl games other than the Eels. They have ruined the game with their inconsistently. It’s my personal protest.
I think Jason Ryles has made a huge blunder with this move with Dylan Brown. We’re in danger, as most rebuilding teams usually are, of getting into the trap of thinking winning and losing don’t matter, as long as we’re “improving”, but winning and losing are skills as well and he’s basically decided that’s no longer important. The problem is that the players then don’t fight out games. We saw that yesterday, once the Panthers got out to a lead our guys just stopped caring. Junior & Williams, Lomax, both situations of players not desperate enough to win, Lindsay Smith’s try at the end, we just weren’t desperate enough to stop him. The last 41 minutes of that game were the worst of our season. If Jason Ryles has decided that winning is no longer important then he is not the coach for this club. That was unacceptable yesterday.
Brett, in all due respect where has Ryles said we don’t want to win?
How has Brown helped our cause thus far? And a better question is If Brown was our best player consistently then Ryles would have been forced to do something else.
Ryles had the nous to try this and he’s reshaped the roster in almost half a season compared to other clubs.
To me we look better mostly in attack and our defence has shown some good signs. It’s the inconsistency due to a new crop of kids.
Injury and suspension have hurt again along with Lane having time off.
I’m all for putting the blowtorch on the R and R as we need a couple of key players
When he said in his post match presser “Our future is now”, which was code for “we are no longer picking the team to win now”. Sorry, but you never trade winning now for theoretical future winning. Build your roster for the future ? Sure, but pick teams to win today. Is Dylan Brown in our current best 17 at 5/8 as our roster stands currently ? Unquestionably. Josh Papalii may or may not be the 5/8 in 2026, but he’s not our best 5/8 currently. All Ryles was tell the guys, winning is not important, nor is fighting till the end because we’re all about the future now. I’ve never been more disappointed than after hearing Ryles say that.
Brett. I differ and it’s how things have been interpreted- Ryles was spot on and the futures now. Brown for all we know is going to a club with a different coach and possibly without Ponga.
For me our coach is looking at our team going forward and Brown imo has not been anywhere near one of our better players.
We all have varied views.
Brown is in our top 17, but I ask you to show me how he’s been week in week out.
Play Brown at lock or centre for me. He’s shown sweet little thus far as 5/8 and he’s paid a good wage.
Let me ask you this then. If we were in the top 8 would he be in the team ?
Short response to that question – if we are top eight Dylan would firing on all four but he isn’t, he hasn’t and now we have what seven or eight games. Leave him in the team for Mitch. if Lomax held that ball Penrith were gone. But it didn’t happened. When you say the worst half of the season you are forgetting we lost twice with fifty against us. Who can forget the first half against the Storm. Brown contributed to that with announcement just before the game. And we lost KK which did not help. Again the referee missed an obvious hip drop and no penalty. If it was the other way around it’s a sin bin.
What we need to do during the off season is retrain out referees – mentally – psychologically and with a better understanding of the rules. They all seem to different perspective of the managing a game. The simple answer is to treat each game like an origin because they referee that game differently. Although this year wasn’t the best.
That’s not the point. The point is that if we were he’d be playing, which means winning now is no longer important to Ryles, and that is something I cannot agree with. If winning doesn’t matter now, if won’t matter in 2026. All those things happen, in games, teams that value winning overcome or at least fight till the bitter end. We did not.
Brett, of course he would be in the team mate, but IMO he is not playing like an elite of type player that he’s being paid for. I like the kid but for me he’s not shown any strong consistency and we needed him to step up / at least show something better during the times Moses has been out along with others.
I wish him well in Newcastle; I also feel Ryles is running the show and good on him, as he is not sitting back and waiting.
Last weekend, we could of beaten Penrith; we made vital errors and defence lapese. Thats not all on Brown but he has been avg all season for me.
Our recruitment going forward is vital and tbh the blowtorch needs to be more on them as well.
Disappointing finish.
One dropped ball sticks and the result could have been different.
The good:
DaSilva looks sharp. We now have two gun number 9s.
Ryles will need to manage that sensitively or we will lose one, but he made it clear in the press conference that Smith is back next week.
The return of Bailey Simmonsen went better than I expected. He is a much better centre than wing and had a very good game.
Junior acquitted himself well for game 200.
Iongi had another great game.
The short side plays are close to sticking. A little more patience will pay dividends.
Moses is back for the game against the Broncos.
Not that Hawkins isn’t doing a good job, but the kicking game is not going to make us a top half team.
Penrith had more than double the kick metres on us today. That’s a big deal.
The bad:
Disorganisation in the outside defence, especially Lomax.
Ryles has his work cut out to get Lomax to trust Bailey in defence and stay where he should.
Disgraceful performance from the bunker.
No sanctions for foul play, missed knock ons,so much more.
Poor decisions that led to errors ultimately drove us out of contention.
My one moment to be harsh on a player was when Lomax dropped the ball with the line wide open, he was more absorbed with his disappointment than turning around to try and help salvage the ruins from his mistake.
I don’t know how many times I have to say this but short dropouts are a sign of a mental deficiency.
I would love to see the stats but I reckon we get about 1 in 5 back, hold the other side out 2 in 5 and give up a try 2 in 5.
Long dropouts have much better stats.
Beating Rabbits, Roosters, Knights and at least one of Broncos, Storm, Canberra and the Warriors would get us to 24 and put a whole lot of morale in the tank before mad Monday.
We seem to have poor record/little luck with all tap downs of kicks.
Twice yesterday Penrith got the ball back from tap backs because they had players on both sides of the ball and were able to recover the ball on eels territory. Doesn’t seem that we ever do that.
Junior was poor – pushed offloads which led to errors, let tago score an easy try when he and Williams both fell off tackle (for what feels like the 10th time this year).
Errors are killing us. No discipline to complete sets and build pressure. It’s risky passes amongst a team will low skill level. And also a team that can’t force errors out of opposition. This results in possession gluts for opposition and eventually waves of points.
I understand Hawkins is a backup but he’s barely a first grader. Other than kicking he offers nothing. Won’t take line on, won’t play deep in line, our attack is scattered and relies on forwards like junior and Walker to do ball playing. I watched Tanah Boyd today show much more as a backup than Hawkins ever has. And yet we went with Hawkins…
Anyway, Silva and ryley will be fantastic combo. Iongi shows he’s the best player in team bar Mitch Moses. Fox, Russell and simmo were solid. Tuivati was solid as was Walker. The bare bones are there but real quality additions needed in offseason
Also I do not understand why dyl brown was hooked. We need to win games. He is much better than Hawkins. Hawkins has not future at parra either. And yet we sat dyl brown for the majority of the game. Penrith must have been laughing at us take away our only other real attacking threat other than iongi.
Ron, I think there was a head clash between the two which contributed to missed tackle.
It may have contributed but we’ve seen opposition players stroll through our forwards for tries regularly – ads typically Willis’s or hopgood somewhere involved.
I do think our defensive system is better then under ba (but that’s not high praise as our defence what linespeed was relatively woeful under brad). Jdb will help tighten us up in middle and get line speed in tandem with Riley smith
Joash has potential for next year as do Lorenzo and Hunter long term but let’s get Isaac Moses on the ph and sign Doueihi now.
He is the big body five eight that can ball play and run and hold his own in defence we need for 2026
Good point Tony.
Arguably could have done with Doueihi this year. I think he’s shown he’s recovered from his knee injuries and would be a great addition. Plays centre and halves and kicks well.
Juniour has been pretty rock solid for us this year but the games we have really struggled in is when he wants to play like a second halfback. It never works for us it just plaques us with more errors and no go forward and we just go from side to side. All our best games are when he just tucks it under the wing and runs hard. I think it also highlights how much we desperately need another power middle forward to give him help because for me jack williams is the best backrower in the club and that’s were we should have him.
The second half reminded me of the first half against StGeorge which reminded me of Darwin
These guys need to stay switched on, I think playing Lomax was a mistake, he looked tired and we need to look after him better
Where’s our prop post contact meters, we got folded
Yep, we are in agreement here Ron. I don’t care if we’re rebuilding, winning and losing ALWAYS matters. It seems Jason Ryles has decided it no longer matters and the players saw that and just didn’t fight out the result to the bitter end. Yesterday was a massive step backwards and if it doesn’t change it never will. The last 41 minutes yesterday were the worst of the season.
Not sure if you watched the pod Brett because that was my point. I want every decision to be about the team being in the best possible position to win games. It’s why I was opposed to Darwin. It was counterproductive to winning games.
I didn’t mate, but I agree, and I just cannot see how playing Dylan Brown at 9 for 30 minutes and not run the ball once achieves that. I’m massively disappointed in Jason Ryles here.
That was one of the most frustrating games I’ve been to. Really did feel like it was a case of taking ten steps back in the rebuild. You’d have to score the team zero for match awareness and game management. What was the thinking behind Lomax’s 2 point field goal attempt with I think a minute & 40 seconds left in the first half? It must have been an agreed strategy but such a low percentage play and if he’d a have hit it well it was more likely to be a 7 tackle set than anything anyway. No one chased the kick as it was. Pure madness. We saw the outcome. Yeah the officials were rubbish but so was the team. It was a game of so many frustrating instances. I’m so over the cute team selections in the season proper, trying to play razzle dazzle football when no platform has been laid, our most experienced middle ball playing rather than taking the ball up, Williams missing tackles as a middle that result in tries, Hopgood giving away penalties, Lomax’s soft tackle attempt etc . I saw a news grab of Ryles leading into the game sprouting that the signing of TDS and Joash would take the eels back into finals football. Who hand on heart believes that. I’m on board for playing ugly and doing what it takes to win a game or two.
Trapped, as I said in the pod, I have been frustrated by games like the Dolphins and yesterday (and a few others) where our low percentage plays led to incomplete sets and allowed opponents to not just stay in the contest but to get the win off our errors. Completing the set after points must be a non-negotiable. Playing low percentage footy after points makes no sense.
We were a good chance yesterday but the officiating was just too off.
The commenators say it all balances up. Well, we are still waiting for it to swing back our way. That was very one sided … and in the end that tells. The weight of consistently getting it wrong (biassed) in a match like yesterday ultimately can … and did … overwhelm us.
In the end it robbed the spectators of what probably would have been a very close match.
Hey mate. I pointed to us first and foremost for the loss. Set completions at 72% told the tale. It felt more like 60% to be fair. But Gough is a concern when we see his name. We have a 30% win record under him. Something about how we play that doesn’t sit well in his officiating. It’s not about calling Parra for errors or poor discipline, it’s about not picking up how opponents play. He and the bunker found nearly all 50/50 calls in Riffs favour. The six again call before their last try in the first half was diabolical. The missed marker offside calls. The missed hip drop. Missing a Riff player just stepping over the ball after picking up the Foxx for that offence. The list goes on and I really don’t want to go deeper. But it does add up.
It’s just a coincidence , but the video ref is a Panthers junior league life member, the number of nit picking calls made and those missed when he officiates the Eels is up there. It’s like he’s only watching one team.
In the second half some hardened pros gave our talented youngsters a lesson. There still is a very long way to go. Charlie Guymer can be proud of his performance.
Fair call. To be fair, we did miss Gideon after that hip drop.
They gave our alleged “hardened pros” a lesson.
Brett, I get the feeling you are a little bit upset. But, I do get your point. Sure plan for the future but let’s not do it at the expense of running last. We want to win games because winning breeds confidence. Leave Dylan at six – let Joash work it out in the reggies. Quite frankly I think we have the best possible 6 to come but he is killing it at fullback.
There are a couple of wins ahead. But, they must first get some respect for the ball. They are not the worst team in the competition.
Not picking up the hip drop is inexcusable.
Gideon was very very slow to get to his feet, giving Atkins more than enough time to review the tackle.
It was a sin-binnable offence, which means we get:
1 x penalty
1 x free interchange
1 x ability to activate Jordan Samrani as 18th man, taking pressure off our rotations.
Instead, we got:
1 x very slow play the ball
1 x loss of our most damaging forward to that point with no compensation
1 x interchange burnt
1 x bench rotation thrown out of whack
It was one missed call that made a HUGE difference to that match. The way we were attacking in that first half, playing against 12 men in that final seven minutes could have seen us going in to the sheds up 10-16 points and it’s a different ball game.
100%
An astute summary. Problems with officiating have reached the point of a crisis. I wonder if they are affecting team morale. Most recent vision, for example show JAC’s boot missing the sideline in the previous game. The code’s credibility is at stake if we can’t lift the standard.
We did ourselves no favours yesterday with errors and poor completion rate. It feels like we just need – especially after scoring points – just someone in the leadership group to call a basic set – 4-5 hitups – kick to the corners – and get into a rhythm again of the game.
With Dylan – these are always hard questions – but Ryles did the same earlier this year with ( from memory) Carty / Matto as their performances may not have been up to standard. – not picking them and backing Gideon / Tuivati to develop and step up . With Dylans selection – i i have no issue starting him at 9 but then probably move him from 9 to 7 and keep him on the field as the steady hand – and maybe he just keeps the young player focused on the game plan
And I hate complaining about the refs – but I think fans just want some sort of consistency – and it is the inconsistent interpretations that change / influence momentum. Examples –
1, JAC penalised for rolling the ball – Panthers get the ball 20m out ( advantage to them). Eisenhuth roll ball was so obvious even the Fox commentators called it out – “play on” – 2 tackles later they score
2. The jenkins knock on / challenge / knock back – then Parra knock on – has been ruled a knock on every game for years . Rather than Elles ball 10m out Panthers get it
3. The Tago try – player holding the leg / arm carrying the ball touches the ground -Rules are clear – “When tackled: 2. A player in possession is tackled:
Grounded (a) when he is held by one or more opposing players
and the ball or the hand or arm holding the ball
comes into contact with the ground ” – not reviewed
4. Hip drop on Gideon – not even reviewed – ref calls play on ( bunker/ touchies silent) we lose a player who was dominating – cannot use the 18th man – not even a penalty – and no sin bin for the Panthers – we play the rest of the game with 16 vs 17 – and today it is announced – Grade 2 charge
“Panthers centre Izack Tago is facing a ban for a hip drop tackle on Eels forward Kitione Kautoga at CommBank Stadium on Sunday. The tackle occurred in the 39th minute of the match and resulted in Kautoga leaving the field with an ankle injury.. The Grade 2 charge carries a one-match ban with an early guilty plea, increasing to two games should Tago fight the charge and be found guilty at the judiciary.”
Agreed – we made it hard for ourselves with our errors – – and I am not saying we would have won – but these 4 stand out moments ( out of many others ) made a clear and direct impact on the field position of the eels, momentum in the game, and bench rotation with one player short
I agree Greg great summary.
Greg, the Tago try is interesting from a technical perspective. When Tago’s arm/ball touches the ground the tackler is holding his legs but Tago’s momentum pulls free and he reaches out to plant the ball. Whilst his momentum is not halted i don’t know if the rules only have that one test to determine a tackle ie ‘held at the point the arm hits the ground’…is there a further definition of ‘held’ that has to be met? There is enough 50/50 in it for the bunker to have the ref call ‘review’ and clear any doubt openly. From memory on KAYO we didn’t get any broadcaster second look and comment as I thought the arm had hit the ground before the tackler slipped off. OR do we just say ‘crap defence’, do better next time.
I initially thought it was as double movement. But when I saw the replay and that the tackler had fell off, thought it was a fair try. Seen similar tries awarded before and would have been more than fine if the positions were reversed, Parra awarded a similar try. 🙂
Agreed – its a technical point and why i quotes the rule book which does not mention momentum. Just says held by a tackler and ball carrying arm touches the ground. My annoyance is that it is not even reviewed . And how many times in general play are the attackers told to hi back and play the ball – and in this case not even a review….like a lot of things in this game
Some good points Greg.
You could see in the first half that our approach to the game was working but errors were feeding, initially into the Panthers survival, then you just got the feeling the chronic errors were slowly killing us. When I saw Eisenhuth escape sanction and Penrith scored, i though it might matter in the end if we get our game together, we didn’t and it didnt.
Has Tago been cleared of a hip-drop? Recall v Titans where a forward (Femor?) ran through Iongi’s legs high in the air fielding a kick and cartwheeled him..careless, reckless and dangerous, but inexplicably cleared. What’s going on?
Thanks again fellas,
Appreciate your insights and that of others as always. I’ve waited a bit to try and get my thoughts straight before contributing, for what it is worth.
Dylan Brown / Joash Papalii: controversial yes and I understand both sides of the argument here. In the end, Ryles has said Papalii is considered our 5/8 going forward and Dylan is leaving. So I can accept Joash being picked. Maybe Ryles should have gone further and stood down Dylan. He has not been great this season irrespective of the reasons as to why. Sixties asked the fair question is Joash better than Dylan at 5/8 at this stage. Perhaps the question should be is Joash any worse playing there than what we’ve seen from Dylan in 2025? It is interesting that some media reporting has suggested Dylan was given the option to head up the highway before June 30 but declined. I truly think he has been torn by the decision to leave. He admitted it affected him earlier in the season. I think it has all season, and reading the latest rumour mill coming out of Newcastle would likely be worrying to him. Even if it is all just scuttlebutt.
Iongi: I think Iongi’s defence has improved this season and we don’t give him enough credit for it. He is making tackles lately that he would have missed at the beginning of the season. Hats off to him.
Tuivaiti: Agree he has been impressive this year. I look forward to his ongoing development.
Kautoga: I was one of the critics at the beginning of the year, quoting some stats from the Manly game compared to the one after (which was better). His improvement and growing confidence have been great to watch. Just reinforces that Muggo is a far better judge of footy talent than me! Such a shame Kautoga was brought down by a tackle that was missed by every official at the game. I wonder what would have happened if Kautoga had remained down for treatment. A one week penalty does. Not seem fair for that one.
Milestone games: Once my son and I realised it was Junior’s 200th for the Eels and Bailey’s 100th NRL game our confidence evaporated. What is it with the Eels and players milestones? We seem to lose most of the in recent times, if not all.
Hard to argue with – while Dylan and Joash both were on the field we had our dominant period. I agree that the development of several of our younger players through the year has been very impressive – Iongi looks like developing into one of our four best ever fullbacks.
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